This three-inch-tall model of Marina City was made recently by a Chicago company, Columbian Model & Exhibit Works, Ltd. It started as liquid urethane, was hardened by ultra-violet light, and then cut by a laser into the shape of Marina City.

Owner Catherine Tinker says it took a few days to draw the shape of Marina City using a Google application called SketchUp. “Once the 3D shape is made, we process it with specialized software and then we make it with a three-dimensional printer called an object machine, which is a form of rapid prototyping and the machine creates whatever we drew.”

It took the machine about five hours to make the model. (Click on image to view larger version.)

Marina City will be part of a large exhibition of highly detailed models filling the atrium of the Santa Fe Building. Opening on June 11, “Chicago Model City” will consist of scale models, photographs, maps, videos, and computer animations. The scale of the models is one inch for every 50 feet, making Sears Tower nearly three feet tall.